The Weekly Blog

Dean Malkiel to step down after academic year

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Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel will step down from her position at the end of the 2010-11 academic year, the University announced Sept. 8. Malkiel is entering her 24th year as dean of the college, the longest period of service for anyone in that post. Only Andrew Fleming West, the graduate school dean from 1901 to 1928, served longer as a Princeton dean.

Malkiel, a historian who joined the Princeton faculty in 1969, has been a driving force in a range of initiatives at Princeton, including the four-year college system, freshman seminars, and the writing program. In recent years, she led the University’s effort to curb grade inflation through a set of guidelines adopted by the faculty in April 2004.

President Tilghman said in a University release that Malkiel "has had an enormously positive impact on undergraduate students at Princeton, by her focus on the quality of the instruction they receive and their experience in the residential colleges." Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 added that Malkiel’s leadership in the residential college initiatives "enabled Princeton to achieve goals that date from Woodrow Wilson’s day."

Eisgruber, who will head the search for Malkiel’s successor, said that the University hopes to select a new dean by the end of January.

PAW will take a closer look at Malkiel’s legacy at Princeton in the Oct. 13 print edition.